Cultural/Intellectual Trends

By: Caden Benedict, Jake Shumate, Gio Amaya, Jose Castillo

Cultural/Intellectual Trends

By: Caden Benedict, Jake Shumate, Gio Amaya, Jose Castillo

Radio and Movies

A series of inventions in the late nineteenth century had led the way for a revolution in mass communications. Marconi’s discovery of the radio waves was one of them. This discovery opened the doors to broadcasting facilities and the production of radios. By the the end of the 1930’s there were 9 million radios in Great Britain. In the 1930’s full-length motion pictures were beginning to be produced, and after WWII about 60% of adults in urban countries were attending a movie once a week. The radio was used to reach large masses sometimes, at the time, Hitler used the radio to broadcast his speeches to his target audience. Films too were used to reach a large audience, for example, Josh Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazu Germany supported the making of films with Nazi messages in them, like “The Triumph of the WIl”.

Old-Time Radio Shows: "On the Air" 1937 Chevrolet 10min

Mass Leisure

After WWI, new work patterns gave people more free time on their hands and new mass leisure activities were born from this. Activities such as sporting events, concerts, and films became quickly popular. Travel also became a popular activity. Buses, trains and cars made trips to beaches or holiday resorts increasingly popular and affordable. Mass leisure offered new ways for totalitarian states to control people. For example, The Nazi Regime adopted a program called “Strength through Joy”. The program offered a variety of mass leisure activities such as opera concerts, guided tours, sporting events and films, for all social classes.

Artistic Trends

After 1918, artistic trends reflected developments made before the war. Abstract arts became very popular. People started to enjoy art that was odd looking and scary. These types of art were caused by people being affected by the World Wars and caused the Dada movement and Surrealism.

Dada Movement

Dadaists were artist who were obsessed with the idea that life had no meaning. Hannah Höch was a Dada artist. She used photomontage to comment on Women's roles in the new mass culture.

Surrealism

Surrealism was a more important movement than the Dada movement. They sought a reality beyond the material world and found it in the world of the unconscious. Salvador Dalí was the High Priest of Surrealism. He made many weird paintings but they were very good. Germans rejected this art at the time. They said it was ugly and not good enough. They ended up making their own type of art but it was boring and just emphasized realistic scenes of everyday life.

Introduction to Surrealism

Literary Trends

Literary artist were also interested in the world of the unconscious. “Stream Of Consciousness” was a technique used to reveal the innermost thoughts of each character. The most famous example of this is shown in the book Ulysses by James Joyce. A german writer, Hermann Hesse, also did this but in a different fashion. His work focused on the spiritual loneliness of modern human beings in a mechanized urban society. Herman won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1942.

The Heroic Age Of Physics

The era of Physics began with Albert Einstein. He and a lot of other physicists unfolded the world for the public. Newtonian physics showed that phenomena could be completely defined and predicted. In 1927 this belief was shaken when German Physicist, Werner Heisenberg, explained the uncertainty principle. His theory suggests that all physical laws are based on uncertainty.

Essential Questions

1.) War doesn’t just cause deaths. How does war alter peoples minds? War causes a lot of people to go insane and really changes how they view things in the world. Like in the Dada Movement people viewed life like it had no meaning

2.) How did new inventions like the radio and movies change the world? Radio and movies changed the world a ton. These two things are our core entertainment today. These inventions were very important and helped people stay entertained.